Focussed Friday

“TGIF!” we say. Too often, it seems like we accept that Fridays are not going to be that productive and we are killing time until the weekend. Would you like to be getting more out of Friday (or, indeed, any other day)?

I recently posted a survey asking people who either felt they were overthinkers or they worked with people who were, if they could fill out a short survey for me. If you haven’t, I’d truly appreciate if you could answer these four questions.

I’ve been really enjoying the appreciating seeing the responses to this and it’s filled me with so many ideas. Two frequent themes that have come up are procrastination and issues of productivity.

I’m still learning to do things better and I think I’m somewhat obsessed with learning about productivity tips [it may have had something to do with my dad introducing me to authors like Tony Robbins when I was about 9 years old] and I thought I’d post some regular tips that I find useful or that I’m trying out.

So, here are three things that have come up this week in talking with people:

You probably already know how fabulous the pomodoro technique is. I always use a timer. For example, even when cleaning the kitchen at night, I set my timer for 15 mins. Using the timer helps with focus.

Sometimes we use our pomodoro space inefficiently because we haven’t set ourselves up to succeed. For example, you may have used the timer to study but you spend the time organising your materials. Set a timer (e.g., for 15 mins) and gather the materials for your pomodoro. I read a phrase in David Allan’s “Getting Things Done” book [fantastic read] which was about being your own PA in terms of setting things up for yourself to do well (e.g., having a to do list ready for the next day, notes to yourself, reminders, etc).

Do something today that your future self will thank you for rather than simply reacting to things.

Will you be joining me on #FocussedFriday?

2 Comments

Thank for focusing me on a Friday! I had missed the pomodoro technique blog post but have now caught up and think it’s a brilliant idea! I use an online productivity program called Simpleology (you can find it at simpleology.com) that I pay around $20 a month for that is excellent for helping me keep track of all the things I have to do, plus projects and other types of work. If I’m asked to do something and I’m away from my laptop, I simply enter it into the app on my phone and it comes up in my daily tasks list. It’s made a huge difference to getting done those things that so often fall through the cracks. But this pomodoro idea will help, too. Thank you for sharing this technique, Kumari.